Late one summer evening in 2012, a packed East London’s Olympic Stadium had witnessed Queen Elizabeth jumping out of a helicopter. While cynics may think it was a stunt person in a pale salmon dress, this wasn't an isolated incident – there were a further three hours of carefully choreographed set pieces created especially for the Summer Olympics' opening ceremony.
An estimated 900 million viewers around the world enjoyed a £27 million fever dream, soundtracked by a selection of songs carefully curated by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle.
There was William Blake hymn Jerusalem, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and, improbably, the EastEnders theme tune. Out of nowhere, a field full of mohawked dancers began to pogo around in across the stage to the sounds of Sex Pistols' 1977 single Pretty Vacant. It’s exactly the kind of spectacle their frontman Johnny Rotten would detest, but its inclusion in the Olympic spectacle only served to underline the enduring, urgent potency of this three-minute punk classic.
